Bruins beat Sens in shootout

Credit: AP

CLOSE CALL: The Bruins’ Patrice Bergeron tries to help from behind as the Senators’ Kyle Turris tries to poke the puck past goalie Tuukka Rask during last night’s game in Ottawa.

OTTAWA — On a night when it looked like they’d come up empty, the Bruins managed to get not one but two points and a 3-2 shootout victory over the Senators.

After Kaspars Daugavins was thwarted by Tuukka Rask on a flashy a spin-o-rama with the toe of his blade controlling the puck, David Krejci beat Robin Lehner in the fourth round of the shootout for the win at Scotiabank Place.

That completed a comeback from an early two-goal deficit for the B’s.

Despite a brutal start to the game, the Bruins managed to scratch out a couple of goals and go into the third period tied with the Ottawa Senators, 2-2, at Scotiabank Place last night.

The bad news for the Bruins was that they lost Chris Kelly to a leg injury early in the second period.

But before that, and before the B’s could even put a shot on net, the Senators had a 2-0 lead.

The first goal came just 55 seconds into the game. Senators defenseman Sergei Gonchar sent a long pass up the middle of the ice that was too far for Guillaume Latendresse, but Adam McQuaid fumbled with the puck.

Latendresse, who’d been out since January 30 because of whiplash, poked the puck past the B’s defenseman and broke in alone. He went to the backhand and tucked a shot past Rask for the quick 1-0 lead.

The B’s were all thumbs in the early going and hurt themselves again at 7:12. Thanks to some pressure from Chris Phillips moving down from the left point, Nathan Horton could not handle defenseman Zdeno Chara’s pass at the half wall and the puck kicked out to Kyle Turris, who circled into the slot and snapped off a wrister that beat Rask high to the glove side.

With that, coach Claude Julien called his timeout to stop the bleeding.

The B’s went on the game’s first power play when Zack Smith was called for a questionable boarding penalty on Kelly at 9:21. On the man advantage, Horton continued his tough period when he missed an empty net on a backhander.

A little later in the period, the visitors got another power play in a rather unusual fashion. McQuaid pushed Chris Neil into the end boards on a dangerous looking play. Patrick Wercioch jumped McQuaid to avenge the hit, but while McQuaid got two minutes for boarding and five for fighting, Wercioch got two for instigating, two more for instigating while wearing a shield, five for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct.

Neil stayed down on the ice for a long time, but would return to the game to inflict some serious, if unintentional, damage.

The Bruins again couldn’t cash in on the man advantage and, thanks to a great Rask save on a 3-on-2 on Colin Greening with 3:18 left in the period, were fortunate not to be down 3-0.

But the B’s then got really lucky with 44 seconds left in the period. Shawn Thornton was surveying his options from the right side and, seeing no play, he flipped a shot on net. The shot handcuffed Ottawa goalie Robin Lehner and squirted underneath him for Thornton’s second goal of the season.

Amazingly, the Bruins were down by just one heading into the second period.

Early in the second, the B’s lost Kelly to the leg injury. In the neutral zone in front of the Bruins bench, Neil caught his former teammate in an awkward position with a leg check. In tight quarters, it didn’t appear that Neil had anywhere to go. Kelly needed help to get up and could not put any weight on his left leg as he went down the runway.

Losing Kelly didn’t help, but the B’s did scrap back to tie the game at 8:53.

After killing a penalty, Daniel Paille hopped on the ice on a change, saw David Krejci had the puck in the defensive slot and curled back up ice. Krejci hit Paillie with the home run pass and, on the breakaway, he beat Lehner with a forehand at 8:53.